Imagine waking up one morning to find the value of your bank account cut in half - poof gone! Could this happen in the US? John Galt believes this is exactly what's in store for the Dollar except the overnight devaluation will be much worse than the one Venezuela just went through.

At any rate if you want to find out what Mr Galt thinks is in store for America (and it ain't pretty) & the Greenback you can read his engaging series "The Day the Dollar Died" at http://www.johngaltfla.com/ with weekly updates posted every Wednesday.

Looking on the bright side I guess you could say it could have been a lot worse for Venezuelans compared to the outright confiscation of savings that poor Argentinians lived through at the turn of the millenium when their corrupt banking system broke down. If the probability of banks going broke is based on the level of corruption within then the US banking system is definitely a candidate for a repeat of Argentina's experience. At the end of the day when the chips are down only Gold & Silver - and not the FDIC - can provide the insurance that is promised.

ESL

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axRgXYrMdWoA&pos=5

Venezuela devalued its currency by half yesterday, the first such action since March 2005, as President Hugo Chavez seeks to pull the economy from recession amid falling oil revenue.

Chavez said the bolivar will be devalued to 4.3 per dollar from 2.15 per dollar for most imports. A second, subsidized peg of 2.60 bolivars per dollar will be used for importing food, medicine and machinery intended to boost the economy’s competitiveness.